


Seven Days

by WritingBoi



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Angst, Family Feels, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Missing Persons, Near Death Experiences, Sad, Sweet, a bit of, but no death!, honestly i wrote this in a 12ish hour period so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 16:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16747546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingBoi/pseuds/WritingBoi
Summary: “When was the last time you saw him?” Touko leans back into the couch they lead her too as the officer asks questions and takes notes. It’s been four days. He’s been gone four days. She’s an awful parent.---In which Natsume goes missing (Touko POV Kinda)





	Seven Days

**Author's Note:**

> Heya, here's a new fic even though I haven't finished my other one. :D  
> But listen, this one is special as it is a ~laptop fanfic~ (aka my mac broke and all I have is my laptop with none of my files) :'D
> 
> Anywho, enjoy. :)

The fact it wasn’t surprising to anyone else, nor truly the first time this had happened, made a part of Touko’s heart break. Takashi was missing.

The first day was normal. Takashi went out early. He is probably out with friends. He’s studying. He’s staying the night at Tanuma’s again, he just forgot to call. Something heavy weighed on her heart but she ignored it, she shouldn’t hover.

Right?

When noon of the second day came she couldn’t bury her worry. She called parents, starting calm and slowly getting more anxious.

No one had seen him.

She’s moments away from calling the police when her phone rings. It’s an unfamiliar number but she answers anyway. It’s Takashi.

He’s extremely apologetic and full of simple, empty reassurances of “I’m safe” and “don’t worry, I’ll be back soon” that she eats up eagerly. She overlooks Takashi’s avoidance of exactly when he’s returning and where he is now the first time, her relief at hearing his voice overwhelming the important details. After he hangs up she waits in the kitchen for him to return, making tea and preparing to scold him for worrying her. Hours pass and the tea goes cold. She calls back and a voice tells her it’s a pay phone. More time passes. Shigeru, though obviously worried as well, tries to persuade her to go to bed. Kids wander sometimes, he says, he’ll be back soon. He said he would.

He isn’t.

The second call, she’s much more attentive. Just as Takashi starts his apologies again she cuts him off, “Takashi. You need to come home. You can’t just run off like this- I almost called the police. Where are you?”

Takashi is quiet for a moment, and Touko begins to worry he had hung up, when he answers, “I just- I need to take care of this first. I’m… I’m so sorry.” His voice, unlike the fake smiling sound of first call, is worn and his words break as he says them, as if he hasn’t slept in days, “I’ll be fine.”

Will be fine, not am fine, but will be. Touko chews her cheek as Takashi recants the same reassurances as before, the words hollow, before hanging up with a quick, “I have to go.”

The next morning Takashi’s room is still empty. Touko leans against the doorframe, whispers to excuse her intrusion, and steps inside.

It’s unsettling how empty it really is. The room gave no hints of the boy, and cat, who live there. The walls and desk are as empty as when Shigeru had first cleaned it. Like a hotel room without its guests. At the same time, however, the room whispered silently that she didn’t belong there. She was not welcome.

Touko shakes off the feeling and pulls at the closet door, suddenly desperate for proof he ever existed. Inside are boxes, the same worn cardboard Takashi had carried his few belongings in when he first came here, still cluttered with his things.

He had never unpacked.

She’s close to tears at the implications of that when the phone rings. She rushes down the stairs and catches it on its third tone.

“Takashi?”

“Touko,” Takashi breathes, as if relieved she answered, “I’m sorry.”

“Where are you? Are you okay?” A familiar tightness swells up in Touko’s throat. She never liked it when Takashi apologized, even if he did do something wrong or break a dish, and this time was no different. It always felt… wrong.

He huffs a small, humorless laugh, “I’m sorry, Touko. I can’t talk long, I just...”

A chill runs down her spine and she forgets how to breathe.

“I just wanted to say thank you. You- Shigeru and you were the first to give me a choice and actually… actually want me, I think. Anyway, just in case I-,” Takashi pauses, a muffled voice speaking in the background. Touko feels as if she was watching from outside her body, floating around like in a dream. “Oh, okay, Sensei, I’ll hurry. Uh, I have to go. Sorry. If- If I don’t make it back, uh, know you were the best family I’ve ever had,” his voice cracks, “Bye, Mom.”

The line goes dead and Touko is suddenly thrust back into reality.

“Takashi?” She whispers to the empty house, the very air around her becoming heavier by the second. Why didn’t she call the police the very minute she knew he was missing? Why did she wait? A choking sound fills the air and it takes her a moment to realize its coming from her. When did she end up on the floor?

She scrambles at the phone, wiping tears away so she can see the numbers.

When the police arrive she’s barely comprehensible but someone must have called Shigeru, because suddenly he’s there too, and he does his best to decipher. He’s calm but pale, rubbing small circles into her back. They’ll find him, he says.

“When was the last time you saw him?” Touko leans back into the couch they lead her too as the officer asks questions and takes notes. It’s been four days. He’s been gone four days. She’s an awful parent.

“Did he say anything about where he was going? Any background noise in the calls?” She recalls the voice. Someone was with him. Sensei? An older voice.

“If I recall correctly, he has a history of doing this. We’ll find him.” Yes. Takashi has done this before, in houses where he had nothing to eat or nowhere to hide from the people, the monsters, that lived there, but never with _them_. What did she do wrong?

They trace the calls to a couple pay phones on the other side of the mountain. How did he get there? A train ticket that far was costly. Did he walk? Why?

Natsume Takashi is missing for seven days when the Fujiwaras finally get a call.

A hunter heard a cat yowling and found an unconscious boy in a patch of blooming sweet peas, the cat sitting on his chest. The hunter said not a single stem was broken around him, as if he had fallen from the sky and the flowers moved to cradle him. The strangest thing he had ever seen, he said. The field was well off the typical trails and it’s a miracle he found him at all. The police don’t know how he got there and the paramedics found no injuries, just the typical exposure and dehydration.

By the time Touko and Shigeru get to the far-off hospital, he’s awake.

The first thing Touko wants to do is scream at him and then strangle him for scaring her so badly, but as soon as she walks in the room all her anger disappears.

Takashi, just like the first time they saw him in a hospital, is deathly pale and looks like he could fade away at any moment. His hair hangs over his face, still damp from the nurses’ tending. Takashi’s pale hands are the only sign he’s alive, sliding up and down his arms in a desperate attempt to stay warm in the cool hospital room.

“Takashi?” Touko breathes, half afraid too harsh of a sound will make him disappear.

He looks up and, impossibly, gets paler. He quickly smiles, just a pull of muscles that doesn’t reach his eyes, but seems to realize it’s too late and lets it drop.

They enter the room and sit in bright green folding chairs that feel out of place in the sterile whiteness of the room. A million questions burn at Touko’s tongue and, if Shigeru’s occasional fish-like gaping is any tell, she’s not alone. But to interrupt the quiet breathing of the boy on the bed feels like a crime. He’s alive. He’s okay. That’s enough for right now.

Minutes pass in silent relief before Takashi clears his throat, “Shig- Mr. Fujiwara, can I… Are you…” He stares at his hands, his grip on the thin hospital sheets shaky. Touko feels a part of her break at the honorific. “Will I still be living with you?”

Touko whispers, “Of course, Takashi,” without a second thought, they’d said it was his home too before and they still mean it now. He’d have to burn the house down for him not to be welcome in it and even then he’d be welcome in their new one. The very idea that they’d abandon him over this makes her heart ache.

Takashi nods but glances to Shigeru, who still seems in shock about everything. Touko lightly nudges him and he collects himself.

“Of course, unless you don’t want to,” Shigeru says.

“No, I do,” Takashi says quickly, “And I apologize for worrying you.” Touko thinks she wouldn’t let him leave, even if he did want to.

The next few days are cluttered in nurses and paperwork. A couple officers come in to question Takashi but his answers are vague or he says he doesn’t remember, they chatter to themselves and eventually give it up. “At least he’s safe,” they say.

Touko’s rightful anger does return and she spends a good hour scolding Takashi, who has the gall to somehow look guilty and smile at the same time. He mumbles a, “I’ll tell you where I am next time,” which earns him a light-hearted smack with a fishing magazine and ten more minutes of there-best-not-be-a-next-time threatening.

The idea of grounding Natsume, who for the first time in his life is in a stable enough household to have friends and hobbies, seems cruel so she doesn’t. Also she knows that at least one of his friends, likely Nishimura, is not above climbing up to Takashi’s second-floor window in the middle of the night and she’d rather not have another injured child on her hands.

Besides, Takashi’s red face at being scolded in front of the nurses is punishment enough for now.

After ten days away from home, Takashi is finally released from the hospital. Touko had noticed that getting up from the bed seemed difficult for Takashi, he had a slight limp when he walked to the restroom, but she didn’t fully understand it till they had to walk the long halls out of the building. She attempts to have him sit in a wheelchair, or let Shigeru or herself fetch the car while he waits but, regardless of his anxieties and fears, Takashi is stubborn.

They make it home in record time, Touko’s voice scolding Shigeru for speeding and the soft sounds of the radio helping the time pass.

As soon as Takashi steps through the doorway the whole house seems to liven. Takashi isn’t loud, rarely, if not never, is, but his smile to be back makes the old building home again.

That night Touko can’t get to sleep however hard she tries. Every time she closes her eyes all she can see is that empty room with its dusty boxes. Eventually she gets up, smiling at Shigeru as he lightly snores, and heads towards Takashi’s room. Maybe hearing and seeing him in his room would kill the image?

The house is quiet but there’s an energy to it that puts Touko’s mind at ease, the soft patter of rain against the windows is relaxing as well. Speaking of pattering, Touko wonders where Takashi’s cat wandered off to; the hunter had mentioned a cat, right? She’d have to call around tomorrow and see if anyone had seen him. He was a fairly unique-looking cat, he’d definitely stand out in a shelter.

As she approaches Takashi’s room she’s surprised to see light under the door and hear a familiar soft voice.

“Takashi? Are you still awake?” She slides the door a crack to find him sitting atop his covers with a small green book she doesn’t recognize on his lap.  

“Touko, sorry, did I wake you?” Takashi asks, sliding the book under his sheet so naturally she almost didn’t catch it. Perhaps it’s a diary?

“No. I just,” she smiles sadly at the empty cat pillow Takashi had set out, “wanted to check on you.”

Takashi grimaces and plucks at a loose string on the duvet, “I’m sorry. For that phone call I mean. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

The memory of that call will forever haunt her. She’s sure the dialogue will be the star of many nightmares to come, but at the same time she’s glad he called. If he hadn’t, and just stopped calling all together, they might never have found him. Also the memory of him calling her mom, however traumatic the delivery, is one she wouldn’t trade for the world.

Suddenly remembering the police interviews, Touko cocks a brow, “I thought you didn’t remember anything?”

Takashi looks up at her then, a strange sadness and strength in his eyes as if he had lived a thousand lifetimes and knew he would survive a thousand more, whether he liked it or not. The rain outside his window flashed with lightning and for a mere moment they were not alone, shadows coming in and out of her sight that shouldn’t have been there. In that moment, he was more than human and if it wasn’t Takashi she was looking at, a boy she had come to love as her own child, she’d fear him.

“I remember,” Takashi says, eyes gleaming, “But I don’t want to lie to you.”

Suddenly, as if a switch has been flipped, Takashi once again looks sheepish, “Sorry. That was a weird thing to say, I must be tired.”

Touko remembers all at once the rumors the other foster parents had told, of Takashi either being a liar or saying weird things, and it suddenly clicks. She doesn’t understand, likely never will, but she knows Takashi has survived more than the aggression and abuse of his past families. And as curious as she is, she finds that she doesn’t need to know, just wants him to be safe.

“Not really,” Touko says, coming over to ruffle his hair and squat beside him, a look of surprise painting Takashi’s face, “And you don’t have to lie to us, Takashi, we have no intention of abandoning you, no matter what you say, or do for that matter.”

Takashi’s gaze goes back to the loose string and he sniffles.

“But I understand the truth is hard sometimes too, not everyone wants to tell their mom their every secret after all,” Touko winks and laughs softly.

Takashi’s ears burn red as he covers his face with his hands, “You heard that?”

She chuckles before deciding she’s teased him enough. “I won’t tell,” she promises.

Takashi is silent, face still hidden behind his hands, and Touko worries she’s upset him, then, “Would it- Is it okay? To call you- to call you that? Even if you’re not?”

Touko worries momentarily that if Takashi keeps this up her heart may explode, “I’d be honored.”

They chat for a while longer, Touko doing most of the talking, before Takashi starts to sag and yawn.

Touko ruffles his hair again before saying he should get some sleep. As she stands she feels a light tug on her shirt and turns to find Takashi holding her back.

Takashi looks drowsily at her to his hand and quickly lets go, “sorry”

“Do you need something, Takashi?”

He opens his mouth only to snap it shut and shake his head.

Touko smiles sadly, not everything can be fixed in a day after all, “Are you sure? You remember what I said right? You can say what you want, it’s okay.”

He glances to the window before laying his head down onto the pillow, face first, mumbling into the fabric. He’s so childlike and tired that Touko represses a laugh, she had never seen his side of him before and frankly? He’s adorable.  

“What?”

Takashi rolls his head enough to uncover his mouth, his eyes closed, and murmurs, “Can you stay? I don’t want them to take me again.”

Touko freezes. What?

“Sensei is watching but he’s not a good bodyguard,” Takashi’s hair ruffles as he pulls himself under the covers, as if blown by a breeze. He laughs and waves his hands lazily over his head, “I’m not wrong, you drunkard.”

Touko decides Takashi is officially sleep talking and settles down beside him, running her fingers through his hair. This was one of the worst weeks of her life, but if it meant ending up here, in this moment, she’d suffer through it a thousand times.

Takashi’s sleep talking gives her an idea. She’s done it with Shigeru in the past to find out what he’s getting her for her birthday, usually to heavily imply in later conversations that vacuums and towels are not gift material, and she can’t help but be curious now. She knows she just resolved herself to let Takashi’s secrets be just that, secrets, but she has to know this one.

“Takashi? Honey?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you actually like my cooking?”

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo, what'd you think? Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this (or if you didn't, I love suffering lol) and I may do some more small side pieces for this? idk, We'll see. 
> 
> //Also if you see a mistake give me a heads up and I'll do my best to fix it


End file.
